Music City Funk

Well last night the University Of Kentucky College of Athletics took the road show to Nashville to take on the Vanderbilt Commodores in basketball. Take them on they did and as Patterson said,"They played like men and we played like boys".I think girls could have beat these clowns. They scored 11 points the first half; must be some kind of record.They had worked their way up to number 85 in the nation. Congratulations guys.Now where will you be??86?? There apparently won't be any invitation to the Big Dance in March Madness. Why would there be? We can only look past this season to baseball. Our own close connection to UK Basketball from Stanford can be found in the Buffalo Springs Cemetary in the old section . A marker proclaims this to be the grave site of Basil Ewing Hayden , the First All American in Basketball at the University of Kentucky. Now that is pretty important for a native Stanford son to be the first of the best All American Basketball players at UK . Basil was born in 1899 in Stanford . His father was a grocer and his mother tutored students. As a child the family moved to Paris , Kentucky.He became a star athlete whetre he excelled at all sports. Going to UK he threw the javelin and was the best Basketball player on the team for four years. In 1926 after graduation he coached the Wildcats for one year.That was one of the worst team efforts for many years. His record, 3-13, was the last losing season until Eddie Sutton's 1988-89 record of 13-19.Basil starred in perhaps the first basketball tournament in history when he and the team played against Georgia in 1922. Basil died at the age of 103, and his remains were brought back to Stanford to be buried with his family. When asked about his secret to long life, Basil once said, "Live to 99, and then be careful."Most people do not realize Basil lies in rest in the cemetary, his little ,modest stone and marker overshadowed by the obelisks of rich and important men. There was a small frozen American flag iced on to the bronze marker, a flash of color in the white snow.I never knew Basil but I think the modest monument would suit him to a "t".Thanks Basil Hayden for what you started, and as to the current UK Basketball team and Coach, you are all certainly reason to look to the past.